General Information: This bacterium is named after Simona Kahane who discovered the organism as a contaminant in cell cultures at Ber Sheva, in the Negev Desert, Israel, in 1993. Simkania negevensis is a member of the order Chlamydiales and can reside intracellularly and has a slow prolonged developmental cycle. It has a wide geographical and environmental distribution and is associated with pneumonia, bronchiolitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, furthermore, it is completely resistant to penicillin and to bacitracin. The natural hosts of Simkania negevensis bacteria might be amoebae.